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to his book any day, he had to go fasting for that day. For the theme of his book he took Liberation. And put his resolve that very day in practice. He thought out and made the first aphorism as agaarfcatfor ATTATI. I Darsana, jñāna, Câritrāpi Mokşa-mārgan-Belief-Knowledge, Conduct ( united ) constitute the path to Liberation. Fearing lest he should forget it he transcribed it upon a side of a pillar in his house.
Next day, Dvaipayaka chanced to go away from his house on some buseness. In his absence his house was visited by a Saint. The wife of Dvaipâyaka, herself a pious woman, received the Saint and entertained him. The Saint's eyes fell upon aphorism on the pillar. He thought over it for a moment and then added the word Art Samyak, before it; and departed.
When Dvaipâyaka returned and saw the correction in his aphorism, he questioned his wife. She had not seen the Saint do it, and she said so; but she suggested to the husband, that it must have been made by the Saint.
The lay man-author on this, ran at once to find out the noble Saint, to whom he was indebted for such an invaluable and radical correction. He came upon an order of monks at the out-skirts of the town and saw the head of ihe order sitting in his radiant peace. He at once, concluded that this must be the Saint. He fell at the feet of the Saint and made a most humble and heartfelt entreaty that the work was beyond his poor laymans' wits and that the Saint should oblige him and the world by completing the book the first aphorism of which had been corrected by the Saint in such a providential manner. The Saint was moved by compassion and he finished the book.
This Saint was none other than, our Umâswāti and the completed book is the Tattvartha Sūtra.
Very little is recorded about the life-incidents of Sriman Umâswâti Mahârâja. The following verses of the rarea praSasti-Concluding benedictory verses of Tattvârthadhigama Sūtra, give some idea of the author's spiritual lineage -
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